The Dundawk Distiwwery was an Irish whiskey distiwwery dat operated in Dundawk, County Louf, Irewand between 1708 and 1926.[3] It is dought to have been one of de owd registered distiwweries in Irewand.[3] Two of de distiwwery buiwdings, de grain store and mawtings, stiww exist and now house de County Museum and Dundawk Library.[3]

The distiwwery was used as a navigation point by seamen due to its two warge chimney stacks, one of which was de wargest in Irewand when it was buiwt in 1817.[3]

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Dundawk was home to a number of distiwweries down drough de years. The most notabwe of which was estabwished in 1780 by James Giwweghan and Peter Godbey at Roden Pwace on de site of an owd tannery and bweach ground. Subseqwentwy, severaw Scotsmen joined de company.[4] In 1802, de distiwwery is recorded as operating a 1,514 gawwon stiww, which was qwite warge for de time.[5] By 1804, de distiwwery is reported as being operated by James Reid, Mawcowm Brown, James Giwweghan, Peter Godbey and Wiwwiam Hamiwton, uh-hah-hah-hah.[4] By 1807, de warge stiww, de operation of which was impracticaw due to de wicensing system, had been repwaced by a smawwer, 520 gawwon stiww.[5] In 1812, Brown married Giwwichan's daughter, subseqwentwy gaining controw of de company and on de deaf of his partners, after which de operation became known as Mawcowm Brown & Co.[6]

In 1817, Dundawk and its surrounds suffered from a scarcity of food due to a bad harvest. That year, de owners of de distiwwery, having warge stores of grain, generouswy had de stock ground into meaw and sowd at a rate which de poor couwd afford.[7] In de same year, a 162 ft taww, brick chimney stack was constructed at de distiwwery in dat year (visibwe in de image above), which was de wargest in Irewand at de time.[3] Prior to de reform de excise reguwations in 1823, distiwwation was based on de deoreticaw output of a pot stiww. The purpose of de warge chimney was to awwow firing of de pot stiww in de shortest possibwe time.[8]

In 1823, Mawcowm Brown, den in de trade "nearwy twenty years" gave testimony to a British House of Commons inqwiry into distiwwing reguwations in Irewand. In his testimony, given in June 1823, Brown stated dat his operations had wost money for de preceding two years due to increased competition from iwwicit unwicensed distiwwers, which had increased eight- to ten-fowd in number in de Dundawk region over de same period.[9] As a resuwt, Brown had ceased distiwwing at Dundawk de previous December, and dat had no intention of resuming operations untiw de excise reguwations were reformed.[9] At de time, Brown stated dat iwwicit spirits couwd be obtained for 4 - 5 shiwwings a gawwon, and were de duty reduced to 2 shiwwings sixpence, wicit spirit couwd be sowd at around 5 - 6 shiwwings a gawwon, uh-hah-hah-hah.[9] Wif reduced duties, Brown stated dat de price difference between wicit and iwwicit spirits wouwd narrow, prompting consumers to opt for wicit spirits rader dan risk a penawty by purchasing iwwicit spirit.[9] Brown stated dat whiskey from Dundawk distiwwery was principawwy consumed in nearby counties of Armagh, Cavan and Down, and dat some of his matured spirit sowd at 12 shiwwings a gawwon, uh-hah-hah-hah.[9]

Records show dat by 1837, de distiwwery was consuming 40,000 barrews of grain a year, wif a staff of 100, and an output of 300,000 gawwons of spirit a year (up from 285,000 gawwons in 1826).[1][10] The distiwwery prospered, and expanded furder drough de mid-1800s, wif output more dan doubwing, in part due to de instawwation of a warge Coffey stiww, becoming one of de most successfuw distiwweries in de country.[3]

In 1854, Brown passed away widout a son, and de distiwwery passed to his nephews, de Murrays.[6] When Awfred Barnard, a British historian, visited de distiwwery in 1886, output had reached cwose to 700,000 gawwons per annum.[1] Barnard noted dat much of de output from de distiwwery, was consumed wocawwy, wif de remainder exported to Engwand and Scotwand.[1] At de time of Barnard's visit, de distiwwery was being run dree broders (John, Mawcowm, and Henry Murray) whose granduncwe had come to controw de distiwwery around 1800.[1]

On 22 November 1862, a fire broke out in a corn kiwn in de grain stores of de distiwwery, compwetewy destroying de buiwding which contained severaw dousand tonnes of grain, uh-hah-hah-hah. After a raising of de awarm, 500 men of de 15f, de King's Hussars (a cavawry regiment), awong wif fire engines and oder constabuwary rushed to de scene, preventing de fire from spreading furder. At de time, de bonded storehouses contained 400,000 gawwons of whiskey. It was estimated dat de fire caused £10,000 of damages and 100 redundancies. Unfortunatewy, one wife was wost and severaw endangered after de incident, as during deir efforts some of de hussars had consumed fusew oiws, mistaking it for whiskey.[11][12]

By 1887, wif a Coffey stiww empwoyed awongside de existing pot stiwws, de distiwwery output had reached 700,000 proof gawwons per annum.[5] At dis point, de distiwwery was weww eqwipped wif a cooperage and workshops for engineers, carpenters, smids etc., and had a payroww of about 100 men, uh-hah-hah-hah.[5] However, by de wate 1800s, it appears dat de distiwwery was experiencing financiaw difficuwties, as an experienced externaw manager was recruited in 1898.[3] For a period of time, de distiwwery found some success by focusing on de production of grain spirit, wif yeast a wucrative by-product which was exported to Engwand under de name of "Skywark".[2][5] It is dought dat at dis stage production of pot stiww whiskey had ceased.[5] This focus on yeast resuwted in de production of an industriaw spirit which de distiwwery was happy to off-woad on de London market at a wow price, a fact which disturbed de Distiwwers Company of Scotwand (DCL), as deir competing product was being undersowd.[5] However, as wif many Irish distiwweries, de distiwwery experienced furder difficuwties in de earwy 1900s, and in 1912, de distiwwery's owners decided to seww out and approached de United Distiwwers Company of Bewfast, who offered to purchase de distiwwery in exchange for shares.[5] However, wanting cash, de owners eventuawwy accepted a competing of £160,000 from DCL, who had interest in acqwiring de distiwwery as it wouwd end suppwy of industriaw spirit outside de controw of de DCL group.[3][5]

Under DCL ownership, production continued at Dundawk Distiwwery untiw 1926, when after 218 years, distiwwing stopped, de partition of Irewand in 1922 possibwy hastening its demise.[6][2] In 1927, de Irish Government entered negotiations wif DCL wif regard to re-opening de distiwwery in de interests of wocaw empwoyment. However, DCL stated dat de distiwwery was uneconomic to work as de majority of product was exported to London, and dat re-opening couwd onwy be reconsidered if dey were offered an increased drawback on exports of spirits, and an import tariff on yeast. However, dis proposaw was rejected, and operations were wound up for good in 1929.[5]

In de years dat fowwowed, de main chimney was demowished, wif de bricks used to construct nearby houses, whiwe many of de distiwwery buiwdings were eider demowished or weft vacant.[3] In de 1932, P.J. Carroww, de tobacco firm, purchased de grain store for use as a warehouse or bond store.[8] In de 1960s, dis was donated to Dundawk Urban Counciw for use as an exhibition centre.[8] In 1994, dis became home to de County Museum.[8] Anoder distiwwery buiwding now houses Dundawk Pubwic Library.[13]

John Teewing, founder of de Coowey Distiwwery, announced pwans to redevewop de Great Nordern Brewery in Dundawk as distiwwing compwex in a €35 miwwion investment.[14] The site was previouswy owned by Diageo and used mainwy to brew Harp Lager. When compwete de site wiww have a capacity to produce 3 miwwion cases per annum, making it de second wargest in Irewand. It wiww cater mainwy for de dird party market, a market Coowey catered for prior to its takeover by Beam Inc. (now Beam Suntory).[15]

In Juwy 2015, distiwwation began at one of de two distiwweries pwanned for de site fowwowing a €10 miwwion investment.[16]